SAINT VITUS Guitarist Says 'There Is Talk' Of Recording New Studio Album

JJ Koczan of The Obelisk conducted an interview with legendary SAINT VITUS guitarist Dave Chandler following the band's recent Los Angeles show about their ongoing reunion and future plans. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

The Obelisk: Are there differences between this and [the brief 2003 reunion]? Are there different crowds showing up?

Dave Chandler: Well, it seems like there's more younger people now than there was at that time, so that's cool. The crowds are getting more into it because our new drummer Henry [Vasquez] is such a powerful drummer, people are talking again how they can feel it in their chests and stuff like they used to do years ago. It's changed a little, but I noticed last night there was a lot of kids there, and that's kind of unusual.

The Obelisk: What do you think it is that's bringing those kids out now?

Dave Chandler: Most of them, their parents were fans, and they grew up listening to our records because that's what their parents played. They never got a chance to see this band that mom and dad played all the time, so when they do, they're like, "Oh, this is that band!" A lot of them come with their parents, which is really cool. We get introduced to these guys who saw us when they were 19 and now they're bringing their 10-year-old kid to see us. It's cool.

The Obelisk: What happened with [former drummer] Armando Acosta?

Dave Chandler: He's got some major health problems, and it's just restricting his playing. We had set up to do a really, really big show in France with 100,000 people, 80,000 — the Hellfest. We did Roadburn and like three German shows, and we were like, "Man, you gotta get help, dude," because we can't have something going on like this for the France thing, because that could open up a lot of doors for other things." We played between HEAVEN & HELL and MÖTLEY CRÜE, so we couldn't have stuff screwing up. Hopefully he'll attend to it. We all hope that he does.

The Obelisk: Is the door open for him to come back, pending that?

Dave Chandler: I don't think so. He said a lot of stuff that was on the Internet that was bad. There's a big wall between me and him right now and I don't want to deal with it. Henry's the better drummer anyway. I'm real comfortable with Henry. He's kick-ass, the way it should be.

The Obelisk: You're going back to Europe next month. Are there plans for more U.S. touring?

Dave Chandler: That I don't know exactly. Right now we're gonna do Europe, and that's like for people to see us so hopefully we can pop over there for some of the big festivals and stuff. Especially if tonight goes well, we're gonna want to play in some other cities in America that we haven't played since the day. We did a little on the East Coast and a little on the West Coast, and there's all that in between. Hopefully we'll do something.

The Obelisk: Are there any plans to do any writing or a new album?

Dave Chandler: Well, there's talk about it, but nothing is concrete yet. We're just kind of feeling stuff out and seeing how it goes. If people keep reacting to the reunion thing good, then you never know. You can't keep repeating something, so we're gonna do this thing [in Europe], then if we can do the festivals, then the only other reunion thing would be the States, because there's a bunch of states that haven't seen it. Then after that, it would be either, "Okay, we're retired again," or we would have to do the new record, because you can't just keep on doing reunion after reunion after reunion. That's just redundant. I wouldn't want to be one of those bands who has 50 retirement tours.

Read the full interview at The Obelisk.

Quality video footage of SAINT VITUS performing the song "Look Behind You" on January 29, 2010 at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California can be viewed below.